DD 304 Ch 8 (Patreon)

We arrived back at Haylon, and I took a deep breath. The views and smell of the area filled me with a sense of nostalgia. The buildings were much the same. However, I was very different. The same could be said for Crimson and Charlotte, who had decided to come along with me.

I hoped this would be a fun trip for all of us. We’d already gained control of the UG and this was them creating a nice neat direct line back to us. In a way it was them managing their manager, but I wasn’t going to be too upset.

"There you are," the President of the UG said, as if we were old friends. “It was only yesterday you started here, right?”

I gave him a cursory nod. However, my eyes fell on the woman next to him while he prattled on.

"You know, the headmistress of Haylon is putting a little too much effort into sequestering you. Even telling her we were here to meet with you, she was very difficult about letting us in." The President stated with an overwide smile.

"She's just a very difficult person in general," Crimson added.

“Don’t be mean.” Charlotte scolded Crimson, though the druid looked like she was ready for a nap. Bun-bun was already asleep atop her head.

I rolled my eyes and instead stepped forward to get the purpose of the meeting going.

"Hello, I'm Ken," I said to the woman that the President of the UG had brought with him. Her face was sharp, with a major resting bitch face, but it worked for her and she was very attractive for it. She couldn't have been more than five years older than me, with curly blonde hair and a chest that would even give Des a run for her money. She fit into that suit with a pencil skirt like it was made for her and managed to look professional with her sex appeal barely constrained. I had a feeling that was the point.

"By the way," the President of the UG said, smirking at me taking notice of her, "this is our newest recruit, Sandra. She is straight out of a law firm that didn't quite respect her abilities." He puffed his chest up as if he'd pulled a diamond from the rough. "And because you are now large-scale owners of the UG, I thought it best to offer you her services. She can help you with any matters, legal or otherwise," he said.

Meanwhile, the blonde stuck her hand out and her severe face split into a wide smile. "Ken, I've heard nothing but fantastic things about you."

"Well, don't listen to them. I'm fairly sure they're mostly lies." I told her.

She grinned ever so slightly.

Meanwhile, Crimson went around her handshake, right up to the woman and stabbed a finger into her large and barely constrained chest. "So you're our bitch. Perfect. I can think of many ways to put you to work. If you have a law background, then you are fantastic at paperwork." Crimson smiled in victory.

"If that's what Ken wishes, then certainly," Sandra said.

Crimson's grin grew brittle. "So you're only Ken's liaison?"

"It's my understanding that he is the key member of this group. It is important to focus where I’ll be most effective." she answered with a hint of a smirk.

I knew that statement would drive Crimson absolutely crazy, and my suspicions were confirmed by the pressure Crimson suddenly applied with the single finger on the woman’s chest.

“Take note that you report to all of us. We are shared owners.” Crimson practically growled.

Charlotte glanced at me as if asking if I was going to save the new woman. But I didn’t think she needed any saving. From where I stood they’d given us someone who’d stand up to Crimson on purpose.

"I don't think that's pertinent," the new liaison said. "However, if you wish to include it, then that is simply all I can do."

She really gave Crimson no way out of this. Crimson herself turned to me, an expression asking if I was going to put up with this behavior. The answer was most certainly yes.

"Thank you, Sandra," I said, pointedly using her name. "Crimson is unused to much, if anything, in the way of challenges."

"I take on plenty of challenges." Crimson took offense.

"Yes, you do," I confirmed and patted her on the side, only making Sandra's grin grow a mile wider.

"It makes perfect sense why I was assigned to Ken specifically. Though I hope the rest of you understand that if you need my services at all, I am happy to provide." Sandra confirmed, even though it was already somewhat clear she wasn't willing to do Crimson's busy work. The tension between the two of them became incredibly thick. I had to give her credit. Sandra was doing a remarkable job of ignoring Crimson's glare.

"Well, thank you," I said. "And if you're going to be helpful, I think perhaps the first person you should get in touch with is Bellaire." I tapped away at my CID and shared the contact with her. "If you need me in any PR related capacity, it's best to run it through her first."

"Thank you, this meeting with you has already borne significant fruit.” She smiled. If Sandra didn’t cower to Crimson, she might actually be a significant boon to our group.

“As for you.” I shifted my focus back to Scaredy Cat who was grinning from ear to ear. “How’s your transition going?”

His face fell and he cleared his throat to buy time for the abrupt topic shift. “Oh. That. Amatto has much to get up to speed on before she can take over the role.”

I frowned and glanced at Sandra. “Please do help Amatto with her transition. It seems you report directly to the President of the UG and that position is changing.”

“I was unaware of that.” Sandra said professionally to me before shooting a glare at Scaredy Cat. “It will be done. I’ll make sure to get Director Amatto a bottle of champagne for your congratulations.”

Scaredy Cat’s face fell, like his gambit had just backfired on him. I even wondered if Sandra had been installed with the idea of creating a direct funnel between us and him so that we didn’t realize Amatto had been delayed.

It didn’t matter how much I was upset by this, Crimson’s eyes practically glowed with the chance to go after Scaredy Cat. The two of them always seemed to have some unresolved history. “Oh, she’s been delayed?” Crimson grinned and shifted to using her CID.

"While I have you here," Sandra drew the words out, and I felt myself scowl before I could hide it. There was something in that tone that told me I wasn’t going to like what was next. That and this was the real purpose she was here.

"Yes," I said with a sigh.

"We do have several items we would like to bring up for your attention, both with the UG's latest stances as well as action items that must be taken care of." She pulled an overstuffed accordion folder out.

"Of course," I lied, my own smile becoming as brittle as Crimson's.

Meanwhile, Crimson herself was a bundle of snickers, as she enjoyed my reaction far more than was necessary. I turned to her with a look that could only say ‘careful what you say next’. Crimson mimed zipping her lips and laced her fingers in front of her as if she were the epitome of a good girl.

“I’ll be right back.” Crimson ripped open a portal and jumped through before I could say anything. Of course she was escaping this.

Scaredy Cat glanced at the portal longingly while Sandra seemed to take note of it. “Are there limits to where you can portal?” She asked.

“Just needs to be somewhere I’ve been before. I can do it inside the dungeon and out.” I explained.

Sandra’s eyes lit up at that and I felt I was going to regret it. “We’ll have to make sure you have access to my office.”

***

Two hours later, we were freed.

And Charlotte smiled after the whole affair. "Well, she was fairly helpful."

"She was not helpful," Crimson insisted.

Charlotte squinted and gave Crimson the kind of look that few people got away with. "She was pretty helpful, and she seemed very knowledgeable about all the topics she brought forward. Besides you skipped out on most of it, only coming back for the last little bit and eating enough chips that I could barely hear her."

"I wanted to check back in on you two. Ken was gone a long time. I can assure you she was heavily coached," Crimson argued, as if it were a bad thing.

It definitely felt like she'd done her research. I was Team Charlotte on this one. And based on that scowl from Crimson, she was unlikely to change her team. “Sandra was fine. While we had a lot of decisions to make, she’s still going to be the one to do most of the work. Really I think this is just about the UG trying to stabilize from the change of leadership. If they funnel it all through a single source then it’ll make this all much smoother.” Corporate bureaucracy, I shuddered.

"Well, it's fine as long as she minds her business. It doesn't matter to me." Crimson crossed her arms.

"It wasn't that bad," Charlotte tried. However, before she began, I knew it was a losing cause. When Crimson put her foot down, she rarely left room for negotiation.

Meanwhile, Crimson's gaze shifted to me, waiting for what I would say.

"She was good," I said quickly. "Though it felt like the president of the UG found the most attractive woman he could for the job."

"Aha!" Crimson stopped and pointed an accusatory finger at me. "You do find her attractive."

"Yes, Crimson," I said slowly. "I don't think there's much point in debating the fact that she is very attractive. If I were a betting man, I’d say attractiveness was on Scaredy Cat’s list of requirements for his last gambit."

Crimson chuckled. “It will fail.”

"Ken does need more partners," Charlotte said. But by the way Crimson looked at her, she suddenly squashed her opinion.

Charlotte quickly pivoted. "But someone provided by the UG? What do they think? That you just throw an attractive woman at Ken and he's suddenly up for grabs again?" Charlotte huffed twice before checking with Crimson to make sure she was doing it right.

"Crimson is a horrible influence on you," I said with a shake of my head.

"I resent that accusation," Crimson said pointedly.

"Of course you do, but it doesn't make it any less the truth."

Crimson seemed to pause, deciding if she was going to pick a fight. She watched me before sighing.

"Well, now that the UG has you wrapped around their fingers, what is it you're planning on doing?" Crimson asked.

"Training, training, and if I'm lucky, more training. With perhaps the occasional aside to check in with the Orkai and the demons to make sure they're still hunting the Threadspawn. Oh, and of course we have to prepare for whatever it is you and Des have determined to sign our class up to do.” I said, and Crimson put a hand to her chest.

"It's not that bad," she said quickly.

And I turned to Charlotte for her opinion.

"It could be worse," the druid offered. Which pretty much proved that they had something already planned out. That she hadn’t come forward with it yet was a little worrisome, but then again I had leveling to do.

"Well, that's a ringing endorsement if I've ever heard one. Do I get to know what I'm being roped into yet?" I asked.

"We'll get the details squared away soon, I'm sure," Crimson said quickly, with a look that told me to not ask more questions. And Charlotte mimed zipping her lips.

"Great. I'm going to go make sure that everyone else has what they need," I told them, "so I can do some undisturbed leveling."

"Make sure you find Bellaire," Crimson said. "Giving her stats would help her quite a bit," she said to my look.

And I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "I'll manage," I said.

“Do we know how long it takes for the incubation to complete?” Charlotte asked.

“Fifteen days.” Crimson said before I could get it out. “At least the rate that Selene’s stats are changing seems to be consistent. So, in fifteen days the stat growth that Ken put into her will be complete, though it does seem that her experience from grinding the dungeon is slightly hampered.”

“That’s not a bad thing.” Charlotte said, tapping at her lip in thought. “We don’t want to rush leveling too much.”

I’d already done the math in my head. “It’ll take four incubations per level for my stats to keep up with leveling, at least for 60 to 70.”

Crimson tilted her head doing the math. “That doesn’t account for gear, but then again if you can manage without it that’ll only make you stronger in the long run.”

Charlotte however was having another thought. “If you’re getting twice the benefit, then we’ll all start falling behind.” Her brows pressed down at that. “Not to mention you’re managing to do it with a large group.”

“You’ll all need to keep training hard.” Crimson said. “Ken will probably start hitting a training wall if his stats outscale his level.”

“That’s a thing?” I asked.

“Think of each level coming with a new soft cap in stats. Sure you’ve pushed maybe ten percent over it in the past, but that takes a ton of effort.” Crimson drummed her fingers on her arm.

“I think at least it is still good practice.” I said, seeing that she was at least a little upset at the idea of me slowing or stopping my training.

“Right.” She cheered up. “Either way. You have a solid runway to start grinding levels. If you use Stat Incubation to its fullest with your current harem you’re close to a level a week. Not to mention you could take a break and catch back up.”

“Fast.” Charlotte said under her breath.

For every adventurer, leveling began slowing down considerably the further you went in the dungeon. The time needed to raise your stats was a large part of that. The use of the Orkai gravity chambers had been very helpful for speeding our class back up. We’d managed to still gain multiple stat points a day of training. But [Stat Incubation] just catapulted my training speed to new heights.

“Well, you just got your trial ability Charlotte, who knows what kind of training you can do now!” I added as much pep into my voice as I could, glancing at Crimson to add in.

“Of course. Limit Break absolutely helped me increase my training speed too. It’s one of the reasons I’ve leveled as quickly as I have. I should think about new training programs for each of the abilities and then I can tort-- I mean train my students even better!” Crimson began laughing maniacally.

“Well, let’s get showered and ready for dinner.” I held a hand out to Charlotte who blushed and took it, pulling herself off the couch. “Where did you want to celebrate tonight?”